Scampedia is a free, public encyclopedia of how scams work. It is owned, operated, and edited by Nick Elliott.
Nick Elliott is Scampedia's editor and publisher, and is responsible for everything published on scampedia.net. He also makes the VerifyGuard iOS app, which shows these same entries in its own Scampedia tab. To reach him about anything on this site, email verifyguardsupport@gmail.com.
Most new entries are researched and written by AI. Two automated research jobs run every day: one looks for scams being reported by news outlets and consumer-protection groups, and one scans government sources. Each job uses an AI model (Anthropic's Claude) with web search to find a real, currently reported scam and write it up with a citation to the page it came from.
Before an AI-researched entry publishes, it has to pass automated checks:
Entries that pass all of these publish automatically, without a person reading them first. Entries the review isn't confident about are held back for the editor instead of publishing. AI-researched entries are labeled 🤖 AI-researched on their page. Entries without that label were added directly rather than by the daily research jobs.
Entries marked 🏛️ Government-Verified cite a government source, such as the FTC or FBI. Scampedia is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any government agency or company named in an entry.
No automated check is perfect. If something in an entry is wrong, out of date, or unfair to a real person or business, email verifyguardsupport@gmail.com with the page link and what's wrong. The editor reviews every correction request and will fix or remove the entry if it's inaccurate.
Scampedia is for information and education. It isn't legal, financial, or safety advice. If you think you're being scammed right now, contact your bank and the authorities directly. See the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for the full terms.